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Watashi ni xx Shinasai: I love Tooyama Ema

Okay, there was no way that I’d stop at Koko ni Iru yo, so I went to check out other stories that Tooyama Ema had written.

I found Watashi ni xx Shinasai.

Yes, the title means “please do XX to me”.

Yes, I love it.

In some ways, this is a completely stereotypical shoujo manga. We have a heroine who’s had no experience with love, a playboy, a childhood friend boy, a scheming rival, and lots and lots of fluff. However, it doesn’t feel stereotypical at all. Maybe it’s because the mangaka is just that good. Maybe it’s because I haven’t read shoujo manga in a while. Now, that probably isn’t enough to convince anyone to read it, so let’s give out a few reasons why you should.

#1) Yukina is not helpless. I can’t express how much I hate girls that are completely useless or are always stuck waiting for the guy to save her despite having her own abilityes (S.A. left me traumatized). Yukina completely goes against that by blackmailing a guy into falling in love with her. Yes, you read that right.

See, she’s a popular cellphone novel writer, and due to overwhelming requests, she’s decided to write a romance novel. However, she has the nickname of “absolute zero snow-woman”, because she was born with cold skin and she’s not exactly warm towards other people. She then decided that the only way to write a decent romance novel was to experience love, at which point she decides to blackmail Shigure into it. Don’t you love that sense of logic?

What’s more, she’s smart and uses her logic and observations to get out of sticky situations. I can’t describe how refreshing it is to have a shoujo manga heroine black mail bullies into getting away from her (especially after reading stories like Koko n i Iru yo, Kimi ni todoke, Gokujou drops, insert any series with a bullies heroine here, etc etc etc).

What’s more, she foils attempts that Shigure makes to mess with her and manipulates him instead. Awesome.

2) The first guy, Shigure, is adorable. Yes, he is one of those really stereotypical characters. Cute on the outside, devilish on the inside, girl finds out, he tries to stop the girl from telling anyone else, but ends up falling for her. This is made more amusing because he thinks he’s smarter than Yukina, and she kicks his ass with every attempt he’s made to mess with her.

What I really like about him, however, is how he keeps giving Yukina chances to show how awesome she is.

Anyway, he’s adorable, both looks wise and when he’s realizing his feelings for Yukina. Ahh…tsunderes are the best… (sparkle sparkle glitter glitter)

The order of progression kind of goes like this: 1) hold her hand 2)hug her 3)kiss her 4)teach her about love 5) be her stand-in lover 6)to call her name and so on. There’s no other way to describe them as fan service, and they’re full of squeeeeeeeeeeee. There’s some traditional fanservice mixed in too, such as Yukina getting a princess hug or slowly unbuttoning her blouse (believe it or not, that is completely and utterly plot related).

4) The yandere, Mami. They make everything more interesting, don’t they? What’s more, she’s an actual manipulative villain who does devious things efficiently and gets away with it.

She is SO creepy. But for some reason I find myself rooting for her. Is that a good thing?

5) The art is great. For some reason, I really love this one panel.

6) I know I’ve said it too many times already, but this series is ADORABLE.

Just…GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! It’s SO CUTE just saying KYAAAAAAAAA isn’t enough to describe how fluffy and sweet it is. Not to mention he has one of the most adorable indirect confessions that has ever been uttered in shoujo manga. EVER.

7) We don’t see his face until the fifth chapter. Ah, that one random guy who always shows up but keeps having his face covered in bangs… I was really worried that we’re going to get another one of those spineless unconditional love childhood friend characters.

Thankfully, he actually has a spine and can be very forward when he wants to be.

The fact that he’s extremely pretty helps, even though I’ve never really liked the more “prince-like” characters.

8) The chibis are adorable.

9) The dokidoki moments.

10) Yukina is this kind of heroine. Is there a term for this? I’m sure there’s a word for manipulative, smart, and completely dense (now that I think about it, she’s incredibly similar to Usami Haru). For some reason, she doesn’t really accept the love of other people as reality, and it doesn’t bug me. Usually, I’d be tearing my hair out at her response to confessions, but this is different somehow…

11) The scenes are very memorable.

Every chapter, there’s that one scene which just jumps out. You feel the movement of the characters, the atmosphere, the sounds, in a way that somehow only shows up in manga for me. Needless to say the fangirl in me is loving it.

8 thoughts on “Watashi ni xx Shinasai: I love Tooyama Ema”

I haven’t read much shoujo, but I’ll give this a shot. So far, it’s just been Ceres, which was one of my first manga, and Shugo Chara, the only series ever to pull off a successful trap on me. I’m still not sure that ‘that’ wasn’t a retcon…

aaahhh I love this series. it’s so cute and funny at the same time. even though it’s typical shojo it doesn’t make me yawn which I think is Awsome. and I just LOVE Yukina’s personality. if you know any other shojos with heroines like yukina, tell me please

hey i just want to ask a question, which love team do you choose ? shigure x yukina
shigure x mami
yukina x akira
im just kind of confused! but i think yukina x shigure is much bettter since there fondness for each is near to be lov.